Sumana

This is not a well-developed thesis I’m prepared to defend, just a preliminary thought that came up in response to your post that I probably need to pick at a bit more. But, I feel like there’s an element particular to public-institutional sitcoms like Parks And Rec, and Brooklyn NineNine & other copcoms, some comedies about US public high schools, and maybe an occasional drama with comedic elements, where one thing that’s being made fun of is the dysfunctional system and how badly it fails to live up to its ideal. That mockery stops well short of being a serious critique or deconstruction, it usually trivializes or excuses problematic stuff — but it does make the idea that these institutions, their policies, and the people in them —even the most sympathetic ones— are not benevolent, just, wise, or heroic, rather petty, selfinterested, often incompetent, careless, or malicious. Softened by the humor framing and by backing off from outright criticism, the idea can become background accepted even by audiences who would resist more overt criticism, and be reality-affirming for audiences who are well aware of how problematic these institutions are IRL while still being a source of entertainment rather than rage or despair. I think that’s an element I look for in media of this broad type - that it acknowledges real social and structural problems and doesn’t gloss them over completely or magically resolve them, but does handle them more lightly or optimistically than real life.

I think it’d be possible to do that in a setting that is institutional but much less reliant on underlying systemic violence and threat (or the governmental authority, which is underwritten by threat of violence), but I think it’d be much harder to strike the balance. Where the institution isn’t a problematic by its nature, or is good, one doesn’t want to watch it undermined by cruelty, corruption, and incompetence (even though those are a part of it IRL). It’s hard to find any humor or optimism in cruel or incompetent doctors, teachers/trainers, firefighters or EMTs or other rescue personnel, or in the recognition of corruption in those fields.

I have another thought about sitcoms and social power dynamics and “punching up” but it’s even less formed, so I’ll leave it there for now.